Reviewer Resources

Covers: what reviewers check, reviewer tools, and how to volunteer to review. Doubles as an author-facing “what the reviewer will look for” checklist.

Chapter - Reviewer Resources Overview

  • Reviews are public: every submission review happens in the open on the Bioconductor/BiocContributions GitHub issue tracker.
  • Anyone in the community may comment on any review, not just the assigned reviewer.
  • All feedback must follow the Bioconductor Code of Conduct.
  • Three resources make up this section: review expectations (what/how to review), reviewer tools (checklist + examples), and volunteer sign-up.

Chapter 31 - Review Expectations

Who reviews and the commitment:

  • Reviewers must maintain at least one active Bioconductor package.
  • Budget roughly 30 minutes to 1.5 hours per package review.
  • Complete the review within 3 weeks of assignment.

What reviewers evaluate (author-facing checklist of focus areas):

  • Ease of use of the package (intuitive API, sensible defaults).
  • Documentation quality: complete man pages, a runnable vignette, clear examples.
  • Well-written code: readable, maintainable, follows Bioconductor coding style.
  • Interoperability: reuse of core Bioconductor classes and infrastructure rather than reinventing them.

Note: Chapter 31 sets the process and focus areas. The detailed, item-by-item checklist lives in the reviewer tools chapter (below) and in the package development guidelines chapters.

Chapter 32 - Reviewer Tools

  • Package Review Checklist: a ready-made template reviewers paste into the relevant New Submission Tracker issue and tick off / update as the review proceeds.
  • New Submission Tracker: the Bioconductor/BiocContributions GitHub issues are where reviews are conducted and the checklist is posted and tracked over time.
  • Example reviews: completed reviews (e.g. MAGAR, HubPub, BiocSet) are linked as references for the expected standard and tone.
  • The checklist plus automated BiocCheck / R CMD check output from the Single Package Builder drive the concrete pass/fail items an author must resolve.

Authors: expect the reviewer to walk this checklist publicly in your submission issue, so pre-run BiocCheck and clear ERRORs/WARNINGs before requesting review.

Chapter 33 - Volunteer to Review

  • Anyone in the community can volunteer as a Bioconductor community reviewer; no special credentials required.
  • Before signing up: read the Review Expectations chapter and the Bioconductor Code of Conduct.
  • Sign up via the volunteer Google form (linked from the chapter).
  • Volunteers are then assigned incoming packages from the New Submission Tracker.

Source: Reviewer resources overview , Review expectations , Reviewer tools , Volunteering to review Fetched 2026-08-14 from contributions.bioconductor.org (Bioconductor devel guide).

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